Arturo Fuente Curly Head (Natural)

Back in July my cohort Walt reviewed the Fuente Curly Head Deluxe Maduro. At the time I didn’t realize there were two kinds of Curly Heads. The Deluxe that received a pretty poor review from Walt and the cigar I bring you today, the Curly Head (Natural). This is a great change of pace thats a bit easier on the wallet than some of my more recent reviews.

Since Walt’s review, I’ve heard from many people on what a nice stogie the Curly Heads are for the beginner smoker out there. Recently I had a bachelor party planned for my future brother-in-law in Atlantic City, NJ. I was put in charge on making sure there were plenty of smokes to enjoy for the aficionados and for the irregular smokers in the group. I accepted the mission and remembering the great things I had heard about the Curly Heads, I picked up a box.

You normally don’t associate the Arturo Fuente name with the term â€œvalueâ€. Lets face it, Mr. Fuente puts out some of the finest, rarest and expensive smokes on the market. So it was much to my surprise on what a great deal the Curly Heads are. For a box of 40 stogies it cost me $62.39 (that includes 5.75% sales tax in the District of Columbia). Thats around $1.55 a cigar! With my deal in hand I left my local B&M with a smile on my face with a little skepticism brewing in the back of my head. Can a $1.55 stogie bearing the Fuente name be as good as I’ve heard?

The naked (no band) Curly Head weighs in at 6.50 x 43. A little rugged looking Cameroon wrapper that was a bit on the beaten up side enclosed the Dominican binder and filler. The medium brown Cameroon wrapper isn’t much of a looker and several visible veins can be seen up and down. I’d have to say the Curly Head looked rugged and very simple but had that rustic/classic look and feel to it. I love the little touch of the A. Fuente imprint on the cellophane wrapper.

Easy enough with the cut. I did notice that the stogies are a bit squishy. I thought it might have been just the couple out of the box that I smoked but all the stogies in the box were soft to the touch. Just to be sure, I went to another B&M and even the box that the B&M had open, the Curly Heads were very soft. More on that later.

The foot of stogie was interesting to look at it. Instead of the clean cut type foot the Curly Head foot looked like the wrapper was a little bigger than the binder and the excess was just pushed in. I’m not good with the digital camera and the above is the best I could do but I guess thats how it got the name Curly Head huh? I was surprised as this made toasting the foot a bit easier. Less than a handful of seconds of using my torch and I was ready to go.

You immediately notice the smoothness of this stogie. You have a nice mild, on the verge of sweet tobacco taste on the tip while you take your first initial puffs. A very nice aroma and lots of smoke. As you progress you start noticing some inconsistencies. At times you get a lot of flavor and other times you almost none. With the dozen I smoked from this box the flavor points varied. Sometimes I got more flavor upfront, other times it was harsh upfront but was amazing at the end and vice versa. Like I said, inconsistent.

Construction also varied within this box. I had some that for the most part were soft but had a few hard spots I even had some that just looked plain awful. I counted two in my box that were green in some spots. Not mold, not plume but like a scrap from a candela wrapper got into the mix Coming back to how soft the Curly Heads are, it made it difficult to smoke for an extended period. Your saliva definitely impacts the wrapper and it turns from soft to soggy. Along with the loose short filler and the soft wrapper used, I will assume quality control on this line isn’t a priority to maintain its low price point.

Even with all these glaring negatives with the inconsistencies in both construction and flavor mapping of the Curly Head, I was impressed with its simplicity. I’m a believer in what I’ve heard from others that this is an excellent stogie for the beginner. Adding to this is the Fuente name. A beginner can walk into any B&M, say the name Fuente and 99.9% of the tobacconists out there will know what brand the smoker is referring to making their job a little bit easier to help a newcomer find a good smoke.

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15 Comments

I used to smoke Curly Heads when I was a beginner, and loved their mild flavor, easy draw, and low price. Their rustic appearance did not bother me at all. However, I haven’t smoked one in a while, and after reading your review, it seems that the quality may not be what it used to be, or you got a bad batch. Either way, for the same price, I now suggest that you try the Flor de Oliva Gold, a great tasting mild to medium cigar, well constructed, with a Connecticut wrapper.

I have smoked and tried to find the “regular” curly heads on the web and have been less than hugely successful. I can find the banded deluxes all over theplace and have not enjoyed the ones that I have smoked.

The NAKED REGULARS (unbanded) are a great cigar, they sell for about 2.45 here plus sales tax and are a great everyday cigar,.
I agree a little soft but it makes for a great inexpensive smoke. It is smooth, and from what I have been able to find out the inconsistancies are from the many different “scraps ” that they are made of. so I guess it depends on what is being rolled that day.
I love them and they are easier on the wallet to share, with the confidence that if your friends dont like them they light them and throw them away , you are not out the 6 to 10 bucks like normal. and also your friends wont turn their nose up at them if they dont know the price.

In Europe we have a tendencie to smoke cubans and look away from other cigars. I like to try differente cigars and after having some pearls (Cohiba LE and some more) I’ve found that there are more in smoking than cubans. I bought several A.Fuente just to try: a couple of Hemingway Short Story (funny little stick) and, because I heard so much about this cheap lonsdale, I bought a couple of this ones too (the deluxe) – but they only had maduros. Well, what a surprise! Really great cigar! Tasty and with a good smoke. The ideal for those days when you want something that isn’t very demanding to your taste buds! And for a really low price! I strongly recomend.

I like the Curly Heads for a good all around smoke. I’ll have one a week while cutting the grass or relaxing with my cigar-mooching neighbor. The Curly Head is a rugged cigar and no frills, but a good/inexpensive smoke. I tried the the Deluxes and they’re okay, but why mess with the original??

I agree that the Curly Heads are a bit rough to look at but they are a great smoke when you are doing a little yard work or don’t have time to just sit and relax. Don’t get me wrong they are also great for relaxing on the front porch and watching the world go by too. I keep a box in my humidor for visitor’s that want to try a cigar for the first time.

I’ve been enjoying Curly Head Deluxe Maduro’s since the late 1990’s, but I’ve never tried the regular Curly Head. I’ve read several reviews that state that the regular is better than the deluxe, so I guess I’ll have to give one or two of them a try–especially since I was very shortsighted and only put away one box of CH Deluxe…. I bought it in November, 2000 and am now down to only five cigars in the box. 🙁 I will say that they are fantastic after having that much age on them–at least as far as my inexperienced palate can tell.

There’s a place in the world for a “curly head” and when I say that I’m excluding the banded “curly head deluxe” which is actually a different cigar. I sell cigars out of my shoe repair and boot shop and I recommend the curly head as the “perfect neophyte stick” as well as a budget excellent smoke.

Curly heads are usually on the pretty mild side though they do have flavor. I think it’s more of universal cigar than just about any ohter if not for any other reasons: the price, the dependable mildness, and availability. You will, if you smoke enough of them, notice some inconsistency. I imagine this is due to the nature of the beast in that it is made from medium filler left-over tobaccos from Arturo Fuete’s stable of fine smokes. What, in my humble opinion, makes them compelling is they are always mild and pretty good for smoking on a budget. Some mixed filler cigars make a mess in your mouth, others fall apart. The curly head stays together and smokes to a nub if you like. You can even chew it without the whole cigar falling to pieces.

Like I started with: “There’s a place in the world for a “Curly Head”. I recommend you buy a box and enjoy low cost herfing.

Smoked one the other day before work, I loved it, great aroma pleasant mild taste. Though it did go out about 2/3 down but after a relight it was good to go. Much more palatable than the Cuban Rounds I had before

Have been an Arturo Fuente smoker since the middle 1960s. Got onto them in Ybor City, Tampa, where I went for 30+ years to La Unione Italian, Centro Asturiano and other clubs to play dominoes, cards, and poker, enjoy a drink and smoke a good cigar, enjoying time with my friends. Still into A. Fuentes, amongst others.